Several suitors for Bord Gáis: Rabbitte

There is no shortage of suitors to buy Bord Gáis energy and there has also been considerable interest in buying the National Lottery too, according to communications minister Pat Rabbitte.

The state is hoping to raise €3bn from the sale of a number of state assets. The EU and IMF wanted the country to sell €5bn worth of assets, such as Bord Gáis and Aer Lingus, and use all the money to pay down the country’s €170bn debt. When that was later reduced to €3bn, it was initially expected that only a third of the windfall would be reinvested into the Irish economy to boost job creation, with the other €2bn used to pay back European debt.

Yesterday Mr Rabbitte confirmed half will now go directly to stimulate growth and jobs and the other half into a fund to leverage additional money. Mr Rabbitte said the timing of the sales was important as the Government would not sell at bargain-basement rates.